


Snow Bird - Reunion

by The_Risen_Phoenix



Category: Final Fantasy Type-0
Genre: Family Reunions, M/M, Past Rape/Non-con, Past Torture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 05:43:09
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,925
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17298857
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Risen_Phoenix/pseuds/The_Risen_Phoenix
Summary: The reunion between Eight, Ace and the rest of their siblings in the aftermath of Snow Bird.





	Snow Bird - Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> Saber asked for a reunion fic for everyone and here it is.  
> I hope that I delivered on this and have done it justice!

 

Ace paced restlessly around the room as he waited for Eight to return with his siblings.

 

Kurasame watched as Ace's hand twisted together before pulling apart, before they rose to tug on the ends of his hair. After watching this for five minutes, the next time Ace paced in front of him, Kurasame grabbed a hold of his waist and held the jittery body to his own.

 

Ace fought against the hold, restlessness not relinquishing it's hold on him, but Kurasame hummed soothingly and stroked his hair until finally Ace fell limp within his hold. Resting his head against Kurasame's strong chest, Ace silently listened to his steady heartbeat desperately trying to calm his own. It took what felt like hours, but was really only a few minutes before Kurasame felt that Ace had calmed enough to question him.

 

“What is the matter Ace?”

 

Kurasame felt Ace tense up again within his hold trying to pull away, so he tightened his hold and started up his soothing humming again.

 

“I just...” Ace started hesitantly, staring down at his hands. “I don't know how to act with them anymore and what do I tell them? I can't tell them the truth, what if they hate me? What if they look at me with disgust and never want to see me again? Why would they even want to have anything to do with me, I am used goods and disgusti...mph!”

 

Kurasame covered Ace's mouth with a gloved hand.

 

“Hush Love, that is enough talk like that. You are not used goods, nor are you disgusting and I will do everything in my power to help you believe that. If your other siblings do not feel the same, then screw them. You did what you had to survive, and not many could say the same. However I don't think that that will be a problem, Eight did not look at you differently when he found out did he?”

 

Ace shook his head, mumbling about how Eight had told him he thought that he was so brave and strong to have survived.

 

Kurasame smiled at his words. Eight was a good man, and he was glad to have him as part of his command. He was also glad that Ace had had one of his siblings to help him during the hardest parts of his recovery.

 

“And do you really think that your siblings would feel any differently from Eight? Do you think that they would shun you or degrade you?” Ace shook his head again.

 

“These thoughts are your own insecurities trying to pull you down. These people that I have met and saved that are your family, they will love and support you no matter what.”

 

“You are damn right we will support you through thick and thin yo! You're family, and family means everything!”

 

Ace yelped as Nine's booming voice broke into their conversation. The girls giggled at Ace's reaction as they all pushed forwards into the room. With a quick look towards Ace, Kurasame raised his brows tilting his head towards the door asking if he wanted him to remain or leave. Ace sent back a pleading look, and with a little smile Kurasame resettled himself on the chair he had vacated.

 

“Ace!” The girls squealed as they surged forwards to embrace him tightly. If any of them noticed the minute flinch backwards that Ace gave, no one dared to mention it.

 

Once the girls finally released their hold on the boy, Ace's brothers finally came forward offering claps on the back and brief hugs of joy at being reunited. Finally everyone settled down on the couches and tables, Ace nestled between Eight and a disgruntled Kurasame who had been pulled over to sit beside him.

 

Many eyed the man speculatively, but none of them mentioned their suspicions at the moment. They all knew who he was of course - this was the man who, in many of their cases, had helped to not only free them from enslavement, but to help them reunite with the others. This put them in his debt, but that debt only extended so far; and in many of their minds, that did not extend to being allowed to date their brother.

 

Their brother who looked like he had been through hell. None of them said anything, but all of the uninformed siblings wondered just what Ace had been through. They looked to Eight for answers, but he just shook his head sadly.

 

Although Ace had started to fill out again, and a fairly strict regime of exercise and rest had done wonders for him, the years of enslavement were still clear to see. His face was still gaunt, the roundness normally associated with youth stripped by years of starvation. His eyes though were what scared the others the most. Instead of the clear, bright eyes of his past self, Ace's eyes now were darkened and filled with shadows. His limbs looked like they might snap if he moved wrong, and Nine was sure that a strong breeze would knock Ace off of his feet. Scars could be seen poking out from under his clothes, and they all shuddered to think what his clothes might be hiding underneath.

 

They kept their talk away from the obvious though, Sice speaking with her hands as she had been unable to regain her voice. Each sibling spoke of their time apart, of how they had come to be reunited with each other and how grateful they were that they could all be together again.

 

When it was Eight's time to speak, he told of how he had been rescued by Kurasame and his men, how he had pledged his loyalty to the man and fought his way up the ranks. He spoke of missions to help others that he had been on, until finally he came to the mission where they had found Ace.

 

“And then this guy here” Eight jabbed a finger in Kurasame's direction, “decided that he wasn't going to wait for his unit to arrive and sent word ahead to us that he was arriving with a mission to take over Bhunivelze's castle.”

 

“So there we are thinking 'all right we have at least a week or so before he manages to get here' when a godsdamned dragon lands on the outskirts of our camp sending us into a panic! And off his back hops Kurasame calm as you please and barking at us for not being prepared.”

 

The others break into laughter at this, including Ace who had not heard this story before. Kurasame looked mildly embarrassed at this, and just shrugged his shoulders.

 

“In my defence, I did say that I would be arriving soon....” He murmured in rebuttal.

 

“Not that quickly!” Eight exclaimed laughingly.

 

“Anyway we get there and he lands the damned dragon in the middle of the courtyard, pretty much obliterating the entire front and squashing the army there, and we stormed in with swords and guns blazing.”

 

Eight's voice became less excited and more sombre as he continued his retelling.

 

“Bhunivelze escaped with magic, but we learned that he had given a prisoner to Seymour. Kurasame took off like a bat out of hell to find him when he heard that, and left the rest of the clean up of the castle to us.”

 

Eight fell silent for a moment.

 

“I....I don't know what happened in that room that night,” his eyes flicked towards where Ace and Kurasame had drawn closer together during his tale, “but when he left that room it was only the two of them. I didn't recognise Ace at the time as he had covered himself up, but I do know that the lucky s.o.b. got to have a ride on the dragon.”

 

Ace let out a watery laugh at the clear envy in Eight's voice, and stuck his tongue out at his brother only to yelp as Eight tried to pinch it.

 

“I found out later on just who it was we had rescued, and we reunited soon after.”

 

Eight pulled Ace close to him when he finished, and held him tightly as he gave Ace the push he needed to tell the others about what had happened to him.

 

“As for what happened to Ace, well that's something that he should tell you himself.”

 

Ace turned betrayed eyes upon Eight trying to pull away, but Eight held him tightly whispering that everything would be okay. Everyone's eyes had moved to Ace now waiting, and not one of them missed the exchange between the brothers, nor how Ace had tensed up terribly and almost unconsciously had reached out a hand towards Kurasame seeking reassurance.

 

“I....it all started when you told me to run the night the village was attacked,” Ace started hesitantly. “I ran as far and as fast as I could, hoping to bring back help, but as soon as I reached the forest I ran into a man named Seymour.”

 

Ace swallowed down the nausea he felt when he spoke that man's name. He could feel panic starting to creep into his mind, shutting down his thoughts, before a warm and steady hand holding his tightly managed to bring him back to reality. Ace smile briefly and gratefully at Kurasame in thanks.

 

Kurasame sent a questioning and worried look towards the shaking boy next to him, but Ace nodded resolutely. His siblings deserved to know what had happened to him, to know just how tainted and broken he really was.

 

“He threw me up on his horse and took me to the castle. There he presented me to Bhunivelze as a spoil of war, and offered to share me with him.”

 

Ace lowered his eyes as he spoke these words, he could not bare to see the disgust in everyone's eyes. In reality if he had looked up he would have seen the shock and horror displayed across their faces, several of the girls had their hands covering their mouths to muffle their choked cries.

 

“He made me his _whore,_ and I dared not defy him after they started threatening the townspeople for my defiance. What was one more violation of my body compared to the suffering of an innocent who had done nothing wrong?” Ace explained with a negligent shrug.

 

His brothers and sisters all cried out in their hearts for their brother, hadn't he too been innocent? Wasn't he still? And yet he protected those others at the cost of himself. They wanted to throw their arms around him and comfort him, but something in his body language told them to stay back, that their touches would not be welcomed at that moment.

 

“He...he shared me amongst friends and allies alike. 'Snow Bird' they called me....”

 

Trey jerked back horrified when he heard the name 'Snow Bird'. His master had talked of the delicate boy that he had had the chance to sample for doing a favour for Seymour, and the things he had spoken of doing to that poor boy......And to think that it had been Ace that he had been speaking of. Ace that he had committed those atrocities towards!

 

Ace noticed Trey's jerk, and assumed the worst. Already his brother was starting to pull away from him in disgust. He wondered just how long it would take for the rest of them to follow.

 

Ace swallowed again heavily, trying to wet his suddenly dry mouth before he continued.

 

“It all came to a head about 6 months before Kurasame rescued me. Seymour, he...” Ace paused, trying to put his thoughts into words.

 

“He didn't mind sharing me, I don't think. But he also liked people to know that he owned me, and that he was letting them use me. But one visiting noble did something that really set him off one night and he, and he marked me.”

 

“What do you mean marked you?” Queen asked in a trembling voice.

 

Ace stood on trembling legs and turned his back towards his siblings. With shaking fingers he raised the back of his shirt revealing the mess of melted and scarred skin in the shape of a band etched across his lower back.

 

“I woke up being held down while he ranted at me, then he pressed the brand to my back and bathed it in salt water.” Ace didn't tell them about the assault afterwards, nor what else Seymour had bathed the wound in.

 

“So you see, I'm damaged goods now.” Ace let his shirt fall back over his back and turned to face the rest of the group.

 

“I've been branded and broken and I understand if you don't want to be my brother anymore.”

 

Ace stood tall, facing everyone, tears pouring from his eyes unacknowledged as he stared them down.

 

“ACE!” They all yelled in unison.

 

“You are not broken!”

“We love you just as much as ever!”

“How could you say such things!”

 

They all yelled over the top of each other. All but Sice who had no voice and glared harshly into Ace's eyes.

 

Standing with purpose, he strode over to a shocked Ace and shoved him in the shoulder, hard.

 

With angry, flying hands she started to sign her words at him. Ace stared helplessly at her, not understanding what she was trying to say, until Seven came over to help translate her signs.

 

“ _I've been taken by those assholes too. They tried to use me, but I fought and so instead they cut my throat and left me for dead. Am I broken and worthless too?”_

 

Ace shook his head quickly. “No, no of course you aren't. But Sice, you fought, I didn't.”

 

Another shove to his shoulder as he looked once more at the ground.

 

“ _Yes you did. You fought with what you could and how you could. The fact that you looked after others and thought of them before yourself makes me so proud to call you brother.”_

 

Seven's voice became choked up as she repeated Sice's words to Ace. Holding out a hand towards the cowering boy, she whispered “So am I Ace, so proud.”

 

“ _If you don't think that I am broken and worthless even though I can no longer speak, then you can't think that was about yourself either. That brand on your back? It's just a battle scar for the war that you had to fight on your own. It's not_ his _anymore, it's_ yours.”

 

Ace broke down crying at his sister's words and Sice, not normally one for physical contact, knelt down with him and held him in her arms tightly. Great heaving sobs tore their way out of his mouth, and that broke the restraint the rest of them had, and they converged upon the duo on the ground. Arms held each other tightly.

 

Trey took this time to explain why he had reacted the way that he had earlier. He explained that it was because he had heard of Ace from his old Master and he had heard of all of the terrible things that he had done to him. That finding out that those things had happened to _Ace_ had killed him inside, that there had was nothing he could do to change what had happened. Ace nodded in understanding, saddened that Trey had had to find out in more detail what had happened when he had been shared around.

 

“We love you Ace, nothing will ever change that, _nothing_!”

 

Ace clung to his siblings, soaking in their love and acceptance, all of which he had thought he would never feel again. Eight joined in the family hug, but quickly noticed that Kurasame was now no longer sitting on the chair. Looking around he spotted the man near the door, about to exit the room.

 

Ace obviously noticed too as he cried out in alarm at finding the man missing. Head raised and eyes searching frantically, Ace finally spotted Kurasame.

 

“W-wait! Don't leave!”

 

Kurasame turned and offered Ace a reassuring smile.

 

“Don't worry Ace, I am just giving you time with your family. I will be in my office or quarters if you wish to find me later.”

 

With a final wave goodbye, Kurasame slipped out through the door leaving Ace with a group of curious siblings.

 

“So...” Started Nine. “You and Kurasame eh?” He smirked.

 

Ace flushed bright red.

 

“No, I mean not really, it's not like that! We, we're taking it slow? Maybe? I think?”

 

 

“Not to say that I don't think he is a good man, but what makes him think that he is worthy of our little brother?” King demanded.

 

“Exactly. A bit rude don't you think, trying to court Ace without even asking our permission!” Cater exclaimed hotly.

 

"I mean Eight sort of did, I think?" Ace tried to say, but was cut off.

 

“Aw, but it's a bit sweet don't you think?” Cinque asked dreamily. “Kurasame falling in love with our brother who he saved, it's like a romance novel!”

 

“Well we will certainly need to test out his intentions.” Queen stated, already coming up with a multitude of tests to run the other man through.

 

Sice didn't say anything, just rubbed her knuckles in a threatening manner causing Ace to fear for Kurasame's safety.

 

Ace threw a helpless look towards Eight begging him for help. Eight turned his head and avoided all eye contact with Ace as he studiously refused to help out. Some things Ace would just have to face on his own.

 


End file.
